Chapter 17
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
I’m walking near the Beacon Pavilion when I spot Banks sitting on a nearby bench. He’s working on his laptop, head down, laser focused. If he wasn’t so busy, I tell myself, I’d go talk to him. But he is. And I’m not going to bother him right now.
He still hasn’t asked me out, despite sitting next to me every day in class, despite how much I think he might be flirting with me lately.
As if he can hear my thoughts, he glances up, then does a double take at the sight of me. Or maybe at the fact that I’m staring at him like some enormous creep. Blood pounds in my ears, my face hot. Jesus, Opal.
He lifts a hand over his head. “Opal, hey!”
I take quick steps toward him, trying to pretend I’m not melting into the ground under our feet with humiliation. “Hey. Sorry, I didn’t mean to bother you. You look busy.”
He closes his laptop. “You didn’t bother me. I, uh, I’m glad to see you.”
“You are?”
He gestures toward the open space beside him, scooting over just an inch to give me extra room. “Yeah, of course.”
I hesitate for a split second before stepping forward and sitting down, close enough to catch a hint of the cinnamon on his breath and the faint, clean scent of his soap.
He grins. “Is that really a surprise?”
I don’t know how to answer that, so I say nothing.
“I’m always glad to see you.” He fills the silence with the most perfect sentence that has ever been spoken.
I look down, words escaping me, and tuck a piece of hair behind my ear.
“Hey, listen, there’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you.” He pauses, running his tongue over his bottom lip. His eyes scan the campus, the ivy-covered buildings towering around us. “I, uh…the guy you were with in the library. A while back.”
“Will.” I mutter his name, my hope flickering out like a candle in the breeze.
“Right. Will.” He pauses, studying my face like he’s looking for hidden clues. “Are the two of you…” His brows draw together.
“Oh god, no. Will? No. He’s…” My arch nemesis sounds so childish right now, even if that’s the most accurate description. “We grew up together. Our moms are best friends. But there’s nothing between us. Like, at all.”
“You’re just friends,” he says, confirming.
“Not even. Or, well, sort of. It’s complicated because Professor Gene put us together as the statistics class volunteers, but under normal circumstances, we don’t get along in the slightest.”
He nods slowly. “I just don’t want to get in the way of anything.”
“No, you wouldn’t be.” The answer comes too quickly, too desperately.
A smile spreads on his lips. “Okay. Great. Because…I’d really like to take you out sometime.
If you’re… If that…sounds okay. I mean, some people are weirded out about the TA thing, but I’m not your professor, so there’d be no ethical issues.
But I still understand if it’s weird for you.
I should’ve told you sooner. About being a TA. I just…I really like you.”
My eyes go wide. It’s the last thing I expected him to say. “You do?”
He fights a grin, gaze moving over my face. “Always so surprised.”
“Sorry, I mean, I like you too.”
“Yeah? So, is that a yes?”
“It’s—”
“There’s my bestie.” His voice is a splash of cold water down my back. Regretfully, I pull my eyes away from Banks to look at Will. He slips down on the bench next to me, pushing Banks and me closer together, one arm around my shoulders.
His scent is woody and wet—damp cedar and ocean—and it instantly washes away any trace of the clean, soapy Banks smell I’ve been swimming in.
I try to shrug him off, muttering through gritted teeth. “Go away, Will.”
“No can do, Sister Sue. Professor Gene needs us.” He holds on tight, getting entirely too much joy out of this.
I lock my gaze ahead, refusing to meet his eye. He knows what he’s doing. No doubt he heard at least part of my conversation. “Right now?”
“’Fraid so. Am I interrupting something? I can stand over there if you need to finish up.” He points to a space a few feet away, near a bush.
I’m mortified, and I hate him.
Banks looks down, then meets Will’s eyes, clearing his throat.
“No, that’s okay.” He glances at me and brushes my arm.
“I’ll catch up with you later, yeah? I’ll text you about that date.
” His lips twist with a wry grin. Then, slowly, he moves away, walking backward for several steps as if it hurts to take his eyes off me.
When he’s gone, I turn my entire body toward Will and jerk out from under his arm, my gaze molten lava. “You ruin everything, you know that?”
He scoffs, but there’s a softness to his eyes. Disbelief, maybe. “Oh, come on. You’re not seriously interested in that guy.”
I blink. “It’s none of your business.”
His forehead wrinkles. “He’s a professor, Opal. I knew you were always a teacher’s pet, but come on. That’s creepy. You could lose your scholarship.”
“No, I couldn’t.” Actually, I don’t know if that’s true, but I don’t think it is.
“Banks isn’t my professor. He’s not even a professor.
You’re being so ridiculous. And why do you care, anyway?
If I get kicked out, at least you won’t have to see me anymore.
I’m surprised you’re not begging me to sleep with him so we can finally be rid of each other. ”
His throat bobs with a swallow, and he looks away. His eyes flick slowly from one building to another, then up to the sky and across the horizon. “Yeah, well, as much as I would love that, your mom wouldn’t. And somehow, they’d blame me.”
“I’m willing to take that chance.”
He looks back at me, his eyes hard now, searching. “Of course you are. You’d love it if they blamed me.”
I quirk my brow. “Icing on the cake.”
His lips twitch, and he stands, taking my hand to tug me forward. “Anyway. Gene needs us. Don’t you check your emails? Let’s go.”
“For what?”
“Does it look like I know?”
Pulling my hand away, I move past him. “It doesn’t look like you know how to tie your shoes or put on pants, but you always manage to surprise me.”
He jogs to catch up, cutting a look my way. “Let me know if you ever need a tutorial. Happy to help the less fortunate.”
Without another word, we move across campus and find Professor Gene in his office. He looks up from a stack of papers, lifting his glasses from his face. “There you two are.”
“Sorry,” I say, still out of breath from trying to keep ahead of Will. “Is everything okay?”
“Everything’s fine,” he says, reaching for his laptop. “But I hope you don’t have any plans next weekend. I need you to go to a conference for me.”
“Which one of us?” I ask, my body a sheet of ice.
He stops typing for a brief moment, eyes moving between us. “Well, both of you, ideally. Will that be a problem?”